Lulu & Ronan Keating 'We've Got Tonight'

Chart Peak: 4
YouTube

Ronan fist charted back in 1994 woth 'Love Me For A Reason' and has had over 20 hit singles since - either with Boyzone or as a solo performer... This cover of Bob Seger's 'We've Got Tonght' maintained Lulu's record of having charted in every decade since the 1960s.

Notes on nomenclature: the back cover and booklet of Now 54 both clearly list Lulu's name first, but the booklet shows a photo of Keating alone and the track is attributed to Keating's album Destination.  The credit on the single cover is to Ronan Keating Featuring Lulu and indeed Keating released versions with local singers in Germany, Italy and the Philippines. However the track is also on Lulu's collaborations album together, which features such delights as her trying to rap over 'Let Em In' by Wings. Some editions of the original Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band version (which dates back to 1978 but was only made the Top 40 at the third time of asking in 1995, spell the title 'We've Got Tonite', but clearly Keating and Louis Walsh had no time for such informality. Neither indeed did Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton, who seemingly originated the idea of this song as a duet and had the first UK hit with it. And while I'm being pedantic, Lulu had already had a hit in 2000 with 'Where The Poor Boys Dance'.

The fact that I've started this post with a lengthy paragraph about other versions of the song and sleeve credits is not only a result of my verbosity but also a sign that there aren't a lot of surprises here. Two familiar singers work through a familiar AOR standard in a wholly predictable way. They do seem to play down the one-night-stand theme of the original, presumably hoping that the inattentive listener will hear it as a romantic ballad. Ronan lives up/down to his usual role as a man with a good voice who thinks he has a great one, and four minutes filled.

Ronan Keating also appears on: Now 44, 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58 (with LeAnn Rimes), 59, 60 (with Yusuf), 64 (with Kate Rusby)
Lulu also appears on: Now 24
Available on: Together

Boyzone 'Picture Of You'

Chart Peak: 2
YouTube

'Picture Of You', from the Bean movie, was a huge No.2 summer hit for Boyzone... It kept up the boys' splendid run of success and was their 9th consecutive Top 5 hit.

I'm going to come right out and admit something at the start of the post: I actually quite like this song. Yes, it's a cynical product of the pop machine, and comes from a film I have no desire to see (though I saw enough Mr Bean on telly to know that's the wrong car in the video) but even as it uses every pseudo-Motown trick in the book, I can't help having a certain affection for it. Perhaps because so many other Boyzone hits were lame ballads or poor cover versions (or indeed poor cover versions of lame ballads) there's something slightly refreshing about hearing an upbeat song from them, which means this seems to sound better now than it did at the time. And Ronan Keating isn't a bad singer, although he dies his best to oversing the first verse and ruin it anyway. The other members of Boyzone presumably walked past the studio at some point during the recording process. The surviving members are in the Top 20 this week with a Motown covers album that certainly isn't as good as this.

Also appearing on: Now 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 71
Available on: Where We Belong

Boyzone 'Love Me For A Reason'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

Boyzone are Ronan, Stephen, Keith, Shane and Michael... The Dublin quintet had a huge No. 2 smash with this cover of Johnny Bristol's 'Love Me For A Reason' which was a chart-topper for the Osmonds back in 1974.

Last time I wrote about Boyzone, in November 2013, they seemed about to miss out on the Top 40 with their then current single 'Love Will Save The Day'. In the event they did sneak in at 39 but it seems likely that their Top 40 career is now at an end, though they continue to record. An album of cover versions is due later this year, though of course covers are nothing new for them. Here we find them at the opposite end of their career covering a cover version. Johnny Bristol originally released 'Love Me For A Reason' as follow-up to his big hit 'Hang On In There Baby', but the track was almost instantly covered by the Osmonds, and it's clearly this version that was the model for this version. The Mormon siblings seem to have innovated the addition of the word "girl" into the chorus.

Like a lot of the big Boyzone hits, this seems ruthlessly efficient. It seems like Louis Walsh picked out a song that he knew the target audience wouldn't have heard before and which pleaded directly at a GIRL, emphasising the word in the very chorus. Sung entirely competently and with a video of them standing in a room full of candles you've got a Top 10 single to launch your new boy band. Nobody else needed to care and indeed at this point they didn't. Boyzone would go on to make music for a broader audience, but this is narrowcasting.

Also appearing on: Now 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 71
Available on: Love Me For A Reason: The Collection

Boyzone 'Love You Anyway'

Chart Peak: 5
YouTube

Boyzone originally formed back in 1994 and had a hugely successful career - they had an incredible 16 consecutive Top 5 hits including 6 No. 1s... Ronan, Stephen, Shane, Mikey and Keith returned to the UK chart in October 2008 with the up-tempo, catchy 'Love You Anyway', chalking up yet another Top 5 hit.

Top 5 hit it was indeed, although a peak of 5 meant it was actually their lowest-charting single at the time; however, subsequent singles have all done even worse and at time of writing, they look like missing the Top 40 entirely with their new single this week. Of course their chart positions were greatly bolstered by the fact that their original career took place almost entirely in the second half of the 1990s, a time of frontloaded multi-format sales when release dates could be cleverly stage-managed to ensure the best chance of a high debut, something Louis Walsh took even further with his next charges Westlife. Of course, an act still needs a certain degree of underlying popularity to manage that but it's a factor you need to account for when you're impressed by that run of success.

'Love You Anyway' was very much a comeback single for the group - though unlike Take That they'd never officially announced a split, Ronan Keating departed for a solo career in 1999 (launched by a solo track featured on a Boyzone best-of!) and with the second most popular member Stephen Gately also releasing solo material in 2000 the others eventually had to accept the inevitable and get on with their lives. There was reportedly some bitterness between Keating and the less famous members, and between him and former manager Louis Walsh, but the sight of sales figures for Take That's comeback seem to have healed all wounds and the band reunited for a performance at Children In Need in 2007, then a full-on tour the following year. Like Take That, they smartly tested the waters with the tour of old songs and the greatest hits album before they tried to sell new material, though they compromised slightly by releasing two new singles from the hits collection. This was the first one, and fortunately considering the circumstances it proved to be one of the best things they ever did. Far from the balladry we might have expected, it's an upbeat track with what's apparently supposed to be a Spector-style wall of sound, though to me it sounds more like a pastiche of a Seventies glam-era pastiche of that sound, something like Roy Wood's Wizzard maybe? It also reminds me slightly of the Lightning Seeds, I'm not totally sure why. It definitely has quite a "busy" production, with a lot of percussion and some sort of synthesised theremin wobbling over it at times. It's no masterpiece - this is Boyzone after all - and the chorus does let the side down a bit, endlessly rephrasing the conceit "it's hard to love you but I love you anyway" like a confused Just A Minute contestant. Still, it could have been much worse and with Boyzone, it usually was.

Unfortunately, the album title "Back Together... No Matter What" was prophetic in more ways than they expected, with the death of Stephen Gately in 2009 postponing plans for new material. The did finally release the comeback studio album in 2010, with another to follow in a couple of days' time. I shan't be at the front of the queue.

Also appearing on: Now 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45,
Available on: Back Again... No Matter What - The Greatest Hits (UK comm CD)

Boyzone 'When The Going Gets Tough'

Chart Peak: 1 (2 weeks)

YouTube

This year's traditional Comic Relief single is a cover of the 1986 Billy Ocean hit 'When The Going Gets Tough...' The star-studded video for the track features comedy greats such as Graham Norton, Jo Brand, Phil {sic} Jupitus and Mel Smith as well as cast members from top soap Emmerdale.

Back after the Bank Holiday break on a new album. And yes, I suppose 43 might have been the more logical place to go after 33 and 3, but I've been meaning to do 42 for some time now because it's particularly interesting (and further away from 44, which I did early in the history of this blog).

The album was released in time for Easter 1999, but as long-term readers will know the biggest hit of early 99, '...Baby One More Time', didn't show up until Now 44 so we start instead with the song that eventually knocked it off the top of the chart. This was the Comic Relief single for the year, and follows the typical formula for this slot around the turn of the century, with a popular vocal group of the day performing a cover version and comedy represented by the celebrities in the accompanying video. I know it's a pretty generous definition of "comedy" that incorporates Mel Smith holding a TV aerial against his groin, but that's how things were in the 1990s. In fact the video's so 90s it even has Mystic Meg in it. 1999 was also the last year of Boyzone's original career, though they were able to go out in some style with two Number Ones that year, plus a solo Number One for Ronan Keating. Unsurprisingly, it's Keating who takes the lead on this interpretation of Billy Ocean's 1986 chart-topper, though there's a solo spot for Stephen Gately who was obviously the main solo prospect already. And the other three stand around and do something, I guess. It's a perfectly competent rendition, but really has nothing else to add (it's actually less funny than the original, because it doesn't sound like they're singing "Go and get stuffed" at any point). It does the job with an almost ruthless efficiency: to sell well for a couple of weeks, raise a handy amount for charity, bolster their image and then step aside to be dethroned by another Louis Walsh-managed act. Nobody seems to be having enough fun.

Also appearing on: Now 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 71
Available on: Key To My Life (The Collection)

Boyzone 'Father And Son'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

Ronan, Shane, Michael, Keith and Stephen had a massive No.2 smash at Christmas 1995 with this cover of Cat Stevens' 'Father And Son'.

Well, that's certainly true as far as it goes, although I do wonder exactly how much Shane, Michael, Keith and Stephen contributed as they obviously didn't write it (indeed, they weren't born when the original was first released) and there's not much in the way of backing vocals. Even on their fourth single it feels a bit like a dry run for Ronan Keating's solo career, as well as a conscious attempt to attract what Louis Walsh would call the housewife audience. I'd never heard the Cat Stevens version in 1995, nor indeed the flop cover by Sandie Shaw, but one very obvious difference is that Stevens sings the "father" and "son" parts in different tones of voice in an attempt to differentiate the characters, whereas Keating ploughs through the whole thing in a single voice. That would have made the lyrics confusing had I actually listened to this single at the time rather than enduring it. Keating, of course, later solved the problem by recording the song as a duet with Yusuf (as he then was) but that's on Now 60.

Even now that I have heard more versions of the song, I'm still not fond of it. Like a lot of Cat Stevens it seems too pleased with itself, as if this is a more convincing examination of parent-child relations than it really is; you'll remember from what I wrote about various Steps songs on the last album that I've nothing against shallow songs, but I don't like false depth. Still, the sheer perfunctory nature of this version makes it even worse. The best thing about it is that it's over in less than three minutes.

Also appearing on: Now 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 71
Available on: Silver Collection

Boyzone 'A Different Beat'

Chart Peak: 1 (1 week)

YouTube

'A Different Beat' was the boys' 7th Top 5 smash in a row and second chart-topper... It stormed straight in at No. 1 in December '96.

A strange one this - I remember listening to the chart rundown where it entered at the top (and probably at least some of the other five weeks it was in the Top 40) and I even remember Mark Goodier congratulating one of the band down the phoneline. And yet I don't remember the song at all. So here goes...

Ah yes, it's their "ethnic" one, complete with African children in the video, although Boyzone themselves clearly went nowhere south of Clapham to film their part. Although musically not quite at the level of inspid balladry the band would soon descend to, it's obvious that the group was already being run as a showcase for Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately - you can see in this TotP clip (from the days when they tried to pretend the bands weren't miming by playing the crowd noise very loud) that the other three aren't sure what to do with themselves when the song isn't especially danceable. Oddly enough, four band members have writing credits, I don't know whether that's just a misprint. Were it not for their apparent involvement, I'd have suspected that somebody wrote this as a potential charity single and dumped it on Boyzone when it was rejected. Certainly the sentimental lyric points in that direction but also lends itself well to the Christmas market and promotion of their second album, to which this was the title track.

Also appearing on: 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 71
Available on: A Different Beat

Boyzone 'All That I Need'

Chart Peak: 1 (1 week)

YouTube

I'm not sure whether I have any Irish readers on this blog. I'm even less sure whether they'll be pleased that St. Patrick's Day is marked by this particular representative of their nation's music.
As if to emphasise how unreliable my memory is for this era, the first thing I thought of when I saw this title was that it had been the song that kept Geri Halliwell's first solo single off the top. Of course it wasn't - that happened (with another Boyzone song) almost exactly a year later. In fact, this dethroned an incumbent chart-topper by Run-DMC which had itself kept the united Spice Girls from a perfect record of Number Ones.
I did rightly remember a certain amount of surprise about this though, as their previous two singles had been two of their least dislikeable (the upbeat charity record 'Picture of You' and the not-as-bad-as-it-could have been cover of 'Baby Can I Hold You?') but neither of those had made it to the toppermost: somehow this greatly inferior track was the one that went all the way.

By this time they seemed to have given up the pretence that they were anything other than a launchpad for Ronan Keating's solo career, and the other four members are accordingly relegated to barely-detectable backing vocals. And the material itself has shrugged off most of the trappings of teen-oriented boybandnessin favour of a much more middle-of-the-road sound. Indeed, barring the following year's Comic Relief single they didn't have another hit with a song that you could call fast until their recent comeback. The closest any part of this comes to sounding spontaneous or unexpected is the slightly odd way Keating sings "playing a game" in the second verse. Pretty much nothing else happens for the rest of the four minutes or so of your time that this record takes up.

Also appearing on: Now 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 71
Available on: Ballads - The Love Songs Collection

Boyzone 'Coming Home Now'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

I know I said that Cast's chart career had got off to a good start, and relatively speaking it had. But that's as nothing to the rush of hits Boyzone had: indeed, 'Coming Home Now' was in fact the lowest-charting single of their original career, shockingly failing to reach the Top 3.

I'd remembered this as a pretty lame finale to the album, but what I'd forgotten was that it originated on the first Boyzone album, before they'd developed the style we know them for and thus seems to be trying to combine their usual balladry with attempts at swingbeat. Even mid-90s swing by people who were actually devoted to that sort of music hasn't aged very well on the whole, and this sounds like PJ & Duncan on an exceptionally bad day. The only consolation for the listener is that Ronan Keating is probably enjoying it even less than we are.

Also appearing on: Now 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 71
Available on: Back Again...No Matter What - The Greatest Hits

Ronan Keating 'When You Say Nothing At All'

Chart Peak: 1

YouTube

Solo career, part three. This one is rather a different kettle of fish though - Keating was (and now is, again) the established lead singer of Boyzone, and at this point the group was still officially a going concern. So trusting were the rest of the band, indeed, that this solo debut first appeared on a Boyzone greatest hits album, and was one of the three singles released to promote that release - it's also on the soundtrack to Notting Hill.
As it turned out, though, the band took the traditional "time off to work on other projects" and Keating (to the apparent surprise of his colleagues) didn't go back until 2008. This was obviously intended to be the launchpad of Keating as a solo star, especially in parts of the world where Boyzone hadn't been successful, and he started as he meant to go on: a cover version of a big country hit that was largely unknown to a British audience (Ireland I'm not so sure about) sung in his usual growl. They tend to merge into one after a while, but this was a big record in 1999, making the necessary inroads into the MOR market but still appealing to his teen audience. I discovered through Youtube that he later re-recorded the song as a duet with the Mexican singer Maria Rubio for Spanish-speaking markets.

Also appearing on: Now 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 54 (with Lulu), 55, 57, 58 (with LeAnn Rimes), 59, 60 (with Yusuf), 64 (with Kate Rusby)
Available on: 10 Years of Hits